Divemaster is the first professional level within the PADI system of diver training. This course is your ticket to a great lifestyle of beaches, sea and diving. It is your passport to the tropics and a job you will enjoy. The Divemaster program allows you to stay in a tropical paradise not only gaining more diving experience, but learning how to guide dive tours and control groups of students. DJL Diving allows you the opportunity to develop a wide variety of dive experiences and the real opportunity for work in the dive industry.

Koh Tao is by far one of the best dive destinations in the world to begin a career as a dive professional. It is your dream of a beautiful tropical island buzzing with the energy of a vibrant dive industry. Most importantly, however, the busy ‘divestyle’ island presents you with a tremendous amount of learning opportunity, allowing you to get truly superior training and experience. Diving is year round, and every day hundreds of backpackers arrive to learn scuba diving, which presents you with a unique opportunity to train, teach, and lead, and become a true professional.

Becoming a PADI Divemaster consists of the following segments: knowledge development, practical application and the Divemaster final exam. To prepare you for all this, during the course you will develop your general diving skills, plus problem solving, group management, briefings, control and dive guiding. You will be taken through seminars in equipment, emergency procedures and technical diving, developing you into a confident and competent diving guide. A series of workshops concentrating on essential skills and control will further ensure that your rescue and general diving skills are exemplary.

To complete the PADI Divemaster course you must be 18 years of age, a certified PADI Rescue Diver or equivalent, have completed 60 dives (you need 40 dives to START the course), and have a First Aid / CPR certification within the past two years. If you lack anything other than age, all the prerequisite certifications can be obtained at DJL Diving, and usually Divemaster accumulate well beyond a 100 dives during the timespan of their internship. All Divemaster candidates must have a medical stating they are fit to scuba dive and signed by a doctor in the past twelve months. If there is anything of concern on the medical, it is best to have the medical completed before arriving. Otherwise, doctors on Koh Tao can sign medicals, but if you have any serious conditions, or any areas of concern, best to get a medical completed in a larger medical facility back home.

Before starting the Divemaster course, you can train to a significantly higher level making your learning experience even deeper and more enjoyable. Here are some suggestions for other PADI courses offered at Davy Jones Locker that will help make you more successful as a PADI Divemaster:

Search and Recovery (Highly recommended)

A traditional “Nitrox Man” photo after completing the Enriched Air Diver course.

Deep Diver (Highly recommended)

Digital Underwater Photographer

Emergency First Response Instructor

Emergency Oxygen Provider

Enriched Air Diver (also referred to as “NitrOx”)

Equipment Specialist

Night Diver

Peak Performance Buyoancy

Uderwater Naturalist

Underwater Navigation

You may also consider enrolling in the Davy Jones Locker Diving Boat Handling course, which is a further step towards making yourself ever more employable by just about every dive resort around the world. Being a professional boat operator is a bonus, and definitely puts you well ahead of other applicants.

This is Mike. Mike simulates an injury during every rescue course. It is a tough gig. Mike hates it.

Additionally, since the island is home to world’s first diver emergency response training institution – you can enroll in the Diving Medical Responder Course, which is based on the Exmed MIRA (Medicine In Remote Areas) – having that right next door is just about excellent for Mum’s peace of mind, and even better, as far as your CV and future bosses are concerned.

Naturally, your Divemaster course is much more beyond the diving and the learning. It is an island lifestyle of fun and adventure, and when you are not breathing compressed air or asking questions about the diving stuff, you will be plenty busy exploring, playing on the beach, and generally having a great time. DJL Diving is a highly social place, and as soon as you arrive you find that you are surrounded by likeminded people, and you quickly fit in. There is plenty of party time after diving, especially at the Davy Jones Pool Bar, which is a massively popular hangout spot, and a total mill of Facebook photos, both good and bad, whether or not you remember them being taken.

What happens on Koh Tao, stays on Koh Tao… and in your medical records…

The weeks (or months) you spend living on Koh Tao training as a Divemaster will be some of the most amazing of your life. You will learn tremendous amounts of new stuff about the marine world, pick up a great deal of new skill, and get very close to becoming a true scuba Jedi. Most importantly, however, you will make heaps of fantastic new friends, and create beautiful memories of your time spent in Thailand.